As companies decide to transform digitally, different solutions are required for various steps of the operations. Would it be prudent to use ready-made solutions or build each from scratch?
Mapping Your Backend
The web store may be what customers see and interact with when purchasing a product or service from companies. However, behind the scenes, in the backend, are essential tools that provide that seemingly seamless experience.
Whether to use an off-the-shelf system or to build from scratch requires some consideration. Using an off-the-shelf system involves the cost of configuration to meet the business requirements as well as the software licensing. Building from scratch will involve the cost of the resources deployed.
Wholesale Trade Sector
For the wholesale trade sector, the backend operations are pretty standard – CRM, Order Management, Inventory Management, Logistics Management and Finance Management. There are existing cloud-based off-the-shelf systems from world class vendors that have these modules in place and they have incorporated best practices. Therefore, it makes sense to move forward with off-the-shelf systems. Other benefits include regular updates and maintenance of the system to prevent hacking.
Unique Backend Operations
In a situation where a business has very unique backend processes which has embedded the value the business brings to its clients; it makes sense to build from scratch and own the intellectual property.
A*Star’s Research Support Centre (RSC)
RSC, for example, adopted several prime off-the-shelf systems as indicated in the diagram above.
To support its web store, RSC has adopted the following:
- Progress Sitefinity provides web content management. It engages the audience with thoughtful, relevant content that is personalized and increases conversions. It has proven to be responsive and consistent across different channels.
- Elastic helps users to search for products and content effectively. It does so by storing, searching and analyzing large volumes of data quickly, in near real-time and gives its users the answers they are looking for in milliseconds.
- Matomo is a customizable, user-friendly web analytics platform that provides enhanced insights into customers' preferences.
Combining these three components has allowed RSC to create a highly dynamic web store that can be easily updated, equipped with powerful search capabilities and provides a wealth of information for analysis.
In the next article, we will elaborate on the rest of the systems adopted by RSC.
Companies who wish to start their Digital Transformation journey or discuss the implementation of Digital Transformation can contact us at sales@zooloo.asia. We would be happy to hear from you.
Explore more
- Read about The Digital Transformation Journey
- Learn more about our “Digital Backbones”
- Learn more from our eBook series on Digital Transformation for Wholesale Trade
